Despite Brexit, it’s full steam ahead at the Anglo/French alliance of Domaine du Grand Mayne, with our only immediate concerns relating to exchange rates and the impact on the price of wines in the UK.
For now we’ve decided to keep UK prices unchanged, making the wines even better value, and it’s also a great time to save some extra pennies (or euro’s!) by collecting from our Calais warehouse.
Visiting is great at any time of the year but there’s no better time to be there than during the harvest.
The Harvest Event is on the 24/25 of September, with long lunches, lively company and gourmet dinners. You can also really be involved in the production of this year’s wine.
Grape picking, tasting fresh pressed juice, discussing the impact of weather on the style of the wines, and all against a backdrop of long lunches, wine, great company and a Saturday night celebration of gourmet food and dancing under the moonlight! Click here to find out more.
The President of the Royal Choral Society is HRH The Duke of Kent who last year celebrated his eightieth birthday. It was decided to hold a concert to mark this and the many years of service that the Duke has put in on behalf of not just the Royal Choral Society but many other charities throughout the UK.
It was also thought that it would be a good idea to make it a party for the choir, their families and friends and choir supporters who faithfully attend our concerts – as a way of saying “thank you” for your support.
And so on 12 May in the Great Hall at Central Hall Westminster the choir entertained their guests to a delightful concert, preceded by a wonderful reception and followed by a further reception with delicious “puddings”. The wine flowed, even on Methodist premises, and it was of course supplied by Domaine du Grand Mayne with specially printed labels marking the occasion – and delicious it was too!
The team have had their challenges so far this year, and there’s no doubt that the bad weather during blossoming will result in a smaller harvest.
We’ve been luckier than many others though who have been really badly hit by the frost and hail. In the last few weeks the sun’s come out and its been very hot , and much of the vintage comes from the weather over the coming months. Whatever this year brings, we’ve got some fabulous wines from the 2015 vintage in tank and barrel to look forward to!
All the new bottlings of the unoaked varietal wines will provide you with some great summer drinking. The 2015 Sauvignon is ripe and pure, the Rosé is delicate, fresh and dry, whilst the 2014 Merlot Cabernet is luscious and soft.
But we’re also really fond of the 2014 Sauvignon. And if you want to grab a bargain we’ve reduced the price on the last few cases by €1 a bottle in Calais.
If the reserve wines are your thing, then you’ll find that the 2012 vintages of both white and red are drinking beautifully.
Click here to order.
The big relief in the vineyard last month was that we missed the devastating frosts that hit the Loire, Chablis, Macon and Burgundy. The damage a late frost can do is unrecoverable as it kills off the sprouting buds and with it, that year’s harvest. There’s a long way to go yet in 2016, but everyone’s been busy making sure that the whole vineyard, including the new vines planted last winter, are in great condition. Our fingers are firmly crossed for another great vintage.
Meanwhile, in the cellar Mathieu will be checking to see if racking (see below) is necessary, and getting ready to take the 2015 Reserve white out of barrel. Martin Meinert reckons that the Sauvignon from the limestone soils is the best he’s tasted from Grand Mayne, and the Sémillon is also excellent, so hopes for this wine are very high at this stage.
The 2014 Reserve white is also excellent, with balance and complexity.
Of the Reserve reds, the 2014 is about to be blended using some exceptional Merlot and Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2015 to follow is promising to be spectacular and amongst the very best in 30 years of Grand Mayne. Deeply concentrated Merlot, beautifully ripe Cabernet Franc and powerful and complex Cabernet Sauvignon will provide some fabulous ingredients for Mathieu and the team to weave some magic.
Racking: or soutirage is a traditional method in wine production of moving wine from one barrel to another using gravity rather than a pump. The process is repeated when the casks are moved to the second-year cellar. Soutirage was developed in the Bordeaux region of France in the 19th century at a time when there was no electricity to power pumps and many estates in the area still employ this labour-intensive method. During aging, the wine is decanted several times from barrel to barrel, with tiny amounts of oxygen softening tannins. The process also helps clarify and freshen the wine by removing the fine lees or sediment.
We have your Christmas all wrapped up this year at Domaine du Grand Mayne.
You can choose from our range of great wines presented in luxurious gift packs plus the opportunity to *personalise your labels with a special message.
Alternatively we can hand write your message on one of our distinctive Grand Mayne cards, and deliver your gift direct.
Please note the minimum order for all our gift packages is 12 bottles (in any combination).
The following is a small selection of recommended gifts, but we can also tailor to suit.
Single Gifts
Grand Mayne bottle fermented Sparkling Rosé.
Soft red fruit flavours, with a gentle touch of sweetness.
Packed in an elegant branded black gift case @ £11.50.
Domaine du Grand Mayne Revolution 2009.
Our top powerful yet subtle Merlot, aged in oak.
Packed in an elegant branded black gift case @ £17.50
Two Bottle Gifts
Grand Mayne Sauvignon 2014
Grand Mayne Merlot Cabernet 2013
Fresh, clean white and fruity red wines.
Packed in an elegant branded black gift case @ £19.50
Domaine du Grand Mayne Réserve Sémillon Sauvignon 2012.
Domaine du Grand Mayne Réserve Merlot Cabernet 2011
Only the very best hand picked grapes from each vintage, aged in oak.
Packed in an elegant branded black gift case @ £25.50
Six Bottle Gift Packs
Grand Mayne Sauvignon 2014
Domaine du Grand Mayne Réserve Sémillon Sauvignon 2012
Grand Mayne Merlot Cabernet 2013
Domaine du Grand Mayne Réserve Merlot Cabernet 2011
Domaine du Grand Mayne Vendange Tardive (50cl)
Grand Mayne bottle fermented Sparkling Rosé
One each from across the range of our fantastic wines
Packed in a branded white Grand Mayne carton @ £63.50
Gift boxes are available UK only, but if you buy wines in Calais or want your own wine selection, we can supply the gift boxes separately to you for £2.40 per single and £3.60 per double.
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If you want personalised labels, we must have your order by 20 November to ship in time for Christmas.
For more details or to customise your order, please ring Richard in our Ashe Park office on: 01256 772898.
Small print – delivery costs:
Bulk delivery of gifts will be quoted separately and will be charged at cost.
Individual address delivery is available at £7.95 per address
Minimum order for all our gift packages is 12 bottles.
*Personalised labels subject to a minimum label cost of €50 (£35).
Wine makes a great gift at any time, but wine with your message on the bottle must make for the perfect personalised Christmas gift.
Here at Domaine du Grand Mayne we can turn an already fabulous wine into something even more memorable with a message of your choice on the label. Order before Nov 20th for delivery to any address in the UK or collect from our warehouse in Calais, to make your gift one that will not be forgotten.
The choice of message is yours but we advise keeping it brief so that it looks good on our minimalist designed labels – perhaps ‘Merry Christmas 2015’ across the top and if you are thinking corporate then the name of your company along with the logo in the bottom corner?
Whatever you want we will try and accommodate it. However, time is running out so we need to know what you require along with which of our superb wines – our fresh, dry white Sauvignon, our pale pink Rosé or our soft, juicy and smooth Cabernet Merlot – you wish to personalise.
In the UK our varietal wines cost just £7.95 (inc.VAT) including delivery, and personalising them is just 20p a bottle more. However, if you fancy a trip to Calais then you can save on duty and each bottle will cost just €5.83 (approximately £4.16) plus 20 per bottle for personalisation.
To discuss your requirements and to place your order, please ring Richard Boden now on: 01256 772898 or email: Richard.boden@grandmayne.net. Don’t forget the absolute deadline to personalise your presents this Christmas is November 20th.
Small print: All prices and personalisation, subject to a 12 bottle minimum. Personalisation subject to a minimum cost of €50 (£35).
Kind regards
The Grand Mayne Team
01256 772898
We’re delighted to let you know that our online shop has launched and people are already buying their wine online. It’s really simple… go to https://www.domaine-du-grand-mayne.com/ and hover over ‘Shop’ in the main menu. You’ll get three options: UK Shop (to have it delivered to your home or collect from our offices), Calais Shop (to collect your wine at Calais) and Vineyard Shop (to collect your wine from our vineyard). Pick whichever you want and start shopping!
To use our online shop you’ll need to create an account. There is a button on there to set this up and many of you will already have your login details. If you have questions, or get stuck, however, just contact richard.boden@grandmayne.net
There’s nothing worse that sitting at a wine tasting listening to everyone around you enthusing about tasting apples when all you can taste is… well… wine! Is being able to taste all these flavours the sign of a real wine expert, or something that one can learn?
A recent article in The Telegraph (19th September 2015) reported on a controversial new study that stated that the taste of wine varies greatly, depending on the size of the sip taken.
The article stated:
“While taking a small slurp can produce grassy, woody and even almond flavours in a white wine, a larger gulp can transform it into a blast of citrus and flowers.”
According to the scientists behind the research, this is because wine releases different quantities of chemicals, known as volatiles, in the mouth depending on the volume of liquid tipped in. These chemicals influence the way it tastes.
We all know that the smell of wine is important and it does, indeed, influence the way we experience the taste of wine. However, the researchers found that human saliva fundamentally changes the way volatiles are released from wine, producing quite different flavours in our mouths than we would expect from smelling the wine. This explains why, sometimes, we smell something very different from the eventual taste.
As you would expect, this research has caused a stir within the wine community. Many commentators have suggested that it will change the way wine tasting is conducted in the future.
However, Victoria Moore, the Telegraph’s wine critic, made a valid point when she said that it would be very hard for drinkers to accurately regulate the amount they took with each sip for it to make any meaningful difference.
“Everything we do changes the way we taste the wine, whether it’s the type of glass we use to the amount we pour into the glass. But sniffing remains one of the most important ways we detect flavours,” she said, adding:
“It’s hard enough to persuade people not to fill their glasses to the top because you lose the aroma of the wine which produces so much of the taste, never mind them remembering to alter the size of their sips.”
But what impact does (or should) this have on your glass of wine at home? Day-to-day, probably very little. However, this study suggests that you could enjoy far more sensory pleasure from your glass of wine simply by varying the size of your sips.
The researchers recommend small sips to taste baked apple, apple pie and floral flavours associated with Chardonnay, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc, while larger sips detect the flavour of berries, cherries, grapefruit and honey.
We’d be interested to hear your views on this, and the flavours you can taste in Domaine du Grand Mayne wines, depending on how you taste them.
Full details of the research can be read here.